Mailbag:

Now that the Supreme Court majority has opined that corporations are persons who have the freedom to speak, is it too much to expect that corporations listen, too?

It’s entertaining to imagine what they could learn, in particular, if they listened in a place of worship.

The Daily Pilot’s “In Theory” on Feb. 6 asked religious leaders: “Do pets have a place at services?” There were mixed responses to that question, but there might be unanimity on: “Do corporations have a place at services?”

Because the Supreme Court hasn’t yet granted a soul to corporations, there’s no use in planning any effort to save their souls.

But other benefits might be realized: While pets probably can’t apprehend the Golden Rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” one can hope that corporations would. Then corporations might see the wisdom of adding a community-oriented component to their usually soulless focus on the economic bottom line.

Think of that … corporations that once again felt they had a public responsibility!

Tom Egan

Civility street runs both ways

While I agree with the basic tenet of Steve Smith’s column regarding a lack of basic civility in much of society (“Kids These Days: The war on incivility,” Feb. 9) I believe he failed to follow his own advice.

The story of the snowmen and the teenagers provided a very appropriate teaching moment regarding incivility for both children and adults. However, I believe it was entirely unnecessary to attempt to bring politics into the column. There was no need to turn your column into a political attack piece. In particular, the comments regarding Rahm Emmanuel, while accurate, were one sided and reinforce the incivility between the two main political parties.

If Smith intended to utilize the inappropriate comment as an additional “teaching moment” on a larger scale, fair and balanced reporting and opinion should have compelled him to refer to the remarks on a national scale by Emmanuel and to Rush Limbaugh. You could have further reinforced the lesson by pointing out that Sarah Palin, having, perhaps rightly, taken offense at Emmanuel’s remarks, demanded he be fired, while remaining silent regarding the rather more inflammatory remarks made by Limbaugh.

Jerome Blackman

Costa Mesa